In yesterday’s blog, I began to explore what blocks us from dedicating our temples to the Lord. I emphasized how the lies we believe from the MESSAGES of the WORLD defile our temples, and block God’s light from shining forth.
Today, let’s continue by taking a look at the MESSAGES of the HEART. These are the lies and old messages about ourselves that we believe deep down in our hearts, such as: “I’m not wanted, I deserve to be rejected, I’m not good enough, I’m bad, I have to be perfect, I’m on my own, I’m worthless, I’m not worth protecting, I have to hold all things/people together.”
Now not only do these old MESSAGES of the HEART tell us who WE are, they also tell us who GOD is. They tell us lies about Him such as: “I have to be perfect for Him, He’s mad or disappointed if I fail, I have to hide from Him, He doesn’t understand what I’m going through, He wants to keep me from fun/happiness, I can’t live up to His expectations.”
When we believe these lies about ourselves and about God, we give Satan a handle in our lives, we act out of these lies, and we block God’s light in our temples. Instead of God’s nature shining through, what others see is Satan’s nature – fear, bitterness, unforgiveness, rejection, performance, self-condemnation, blame and accusations.
Sometimes it’s the messages of our HEARTS that cause us to have such difficulty saying NO to the messages of the WORLD. Our fears of rejection might cause us to believe that if we follow God, we’ll be alone or that we’ll appear weak. The old messages might tell us that we can’t trust anyone, not even God, to provide for or protect us, and that we have to hold everything together in our own strength and wisdom. Often, we put our parent’s face on God, making it difficult to believe that He could love us unconditionally and never leave us, and so we look to the world for love and acceptance. If we believe that we are worthless, we will be drawn to the lies of the world that tell us we have to look a certain way, have certain things, or be accepted by certain people to have worth.
Although the celebration of Hanukkah is now over until next year, each and every day we need to rededicate our temples to the Lord. As I mentioned last week, since we are in a spiritual battle, we need to use spiritual weapons of warfare to continually keep our temples clean.
Ask God to show you what lies you are believing about yourself and about Him. Ask Him to show you how these messages of the HEART are making it difficult for you to say NO to the messages of the WORLD.
Now it doesn’t matter whether or not we feel justified in believing these lies or holding onto these feelings, the enemy still gets a handle in our lives and our temples are still defiled. Remember, anything that is not of faith is sin, and so these lies that we are believing are sin – whether they are coming from the WORLD or the HEART, whether they are justified or not.
Confess the lies you’re believing as sin. Confess the fears, anger, self-condemnation,etc. as sin. Forgive those who have wronged you or told you that those messages about yourself and God were true. Remember, forgiveness is a gift – they don’t deserve it, they can’t earn it and neither did you. Cancel the authority you’ve given Satan in your life by believing these lies and holding onto these feelings. Ask God to show you His truth about who He is, how He sees you, where He is in the picture of your situation.
God desires to bless you and give you good gifts, He has a plan for you that is good, to give you a future and a hope. You are a daughter or son of the King. You were worth it to Him to die for in order to have intimate relationship with you. He can’t stop rejoicing over you with singing. Don’t allow the enemy to deceive you into believing that God is trying to rip you off from experiencing something good that the world has to offer. Don’t allow those old lies and messages about yourself to distort who God is or to cause you to look to the world for what only He can give.
Are you ready to dedicate your temple to the Lord each and every day? Use your spiritual weapons of warfare and you will experience His light shining through you like never before!
